Ventilating system.



No. 783,616. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905.

M. E. UOOLEY.

VENTILATING SYSTEM.

APPLIUATIQN HLED MAY 11, 1903A 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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No. 783,616. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. M. E. GOOLEY.

VENTILATING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 11, 1903.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Lettera Patent No. 783,616, dated February 28, 1905.

Application tiled May 11, 1903. Serial No. 156,712.

To LZZ 'L1/temr 111'; may con/cern:

Be it known that I, Moerman E. Cooper, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ann Arbor, in the county of VVashtenaw and State of ll/lichigan, have invented certain new and 'lise'liul Improvements in Ventilating Systems; and l do hereby declare the `following to bea llull, clear, and exact description ol the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to malte and use the same.

'lhis invention is a system for controlling the veiitilating oi' buildings.

It is particularly adapted to buildings having a large number ol' rooms to be ventilated Yt'or varying lengths ot time, such as schoolbuildings and hospitals, where rooms are used and then unoccupied Vlor shorter or longer periods ot time.

My invention provides a Ventilating system having the 'following important advantages: 'lhe ventilation ot' all the rooms or any individual room or group ot' rooms is brought under the control ot a responsible attendant at a central station so that he can establish ventilation in any room shortly before the sched nie-time for it to be occupied and can check the ventilation as soon as the room is vacated, thereby saving the heat required to warm the ventilating-air during the time the room unoccupied.

Means are provided at the central station whereby the dampers oli a single room or ol several rooms can be manipulated without dis turbing the dampers ol the remaining rooms.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, ot part of a building using my improved system. Fig. Q isa horizontal cross-section or' the lues. Fig. 3 is an elevation, partly in sec tion, showing the method ol operating the dempers. Fig. l is a perspective View of a system ot valves and headers for controlling the dampers. Fig. 5 is alongitudinal section 'through the three-way valve lll.

To better illustrate the application of my controlling means to a modern building, l have selected one in which the upright ventilating-iiues in the walls of the building are arranged in parallel rows, so that the lower part ol a I'lue may be used as a 'treslrair inlet ior one of the lower rooms, the upper part ol the same i'lue being' used as a foul-air outlet for the room above. The foul air is carried away from the lower room by a second iiue, and lresh air is supplied to the upper room by a third i'lue. A partition 2 in the flue i sepa rates the Fresh air below from the loul air above. The foul air is usually discharged into a main ll"oulair conduit Z) and then passes outside the lgniilding.

lVhile l wish to describe my invention as applied to the arrangement olE Ventilating- `l'lues. shown in Fig. l, it will be understood that it may also be employed in connection with any other suitable `i'lue arrangement.

In the building illustrated in Fig. 1 the lresh ai r that has previously been tempered by any suitable means enters each room through a register #t near the ceiling, and the foul ai r is discharged through a register 5 near the l'loor. Each `fresh-air llue has a damper (i, and iaeh Foul-airiiuehasadamper7. fluire the ['iue arrangement is suehas to permit, the Vfresh-air and loul-air dempers for each room are preferably [ixed to' a common rockshalt 8, so as to open and close together. By closing the dampers (i and 7 for any given room the circulation ol air `lor ventilation through that room can be stopped. ln school lmildings, hospitals, c2c., certain rooms are unoccupied for longer or shorter periods ol time each day, and il? the circulation of air through an unoccupied room be stopped the heat required to warm the air tor-ventilation will be saved. This heat, which ol course represents lfuel expense, would otherwise be wasted.

To provide means lior starting or stopping circulation at will and to place under the positive control of one operator at 'a central station the ventilation of all the 'rooms ol'l a building is, as stated above, the object ol my invention.

l operate the dempers (i and 7 by means of i'luid under pressure, and l pret'er to employ compressed air for the purpose, altliough water, oil, or other [luid may be used. The mechanism by which the dampers are actu- IOC) - ed d'iagrammatically one type of such adevice in Fig'. 3. This mechanism consists in a pressure-chamber 9, closed by a liexible diaphragm 9a. The diaphragm is connected by a lever 10 anda link 11 to one ot' the dampers 6 or 'l' or to a lever-arm on their common shaft. Fluid under pressure is supplied to the chamber 9 by the pipe 12 to lift the diaphragm 9, and so actuate the dampers. The upward movement of the lever is resisted by a spring 13, which returns the dampers to their orig'inal position when the pressure in the chamber is relieved. The lever may be connected to the dampers in the manner indicated by full lines in Fig'. 3, so that pressure below the diaphragm will open the dampers. In some buildings it is inconvenient to operate both the fresh-air and foul-air dampers of a room by a single pressure device. Each damper may then have its own operating mechanism, and they may be arranged to operate independently or conjointly.

The pressure-supply pipes 12 for all the damper-actuators are brought to the central station in the basement er other convenient place, as shown in Fig'. 1, and are there connected to a common receptacle or header H, supplied with fluid Linder pressure. The source of pressure is immaterial; but it' compressed air is used an air-compressor may be installed in any convenient location and connected to header H by a supply-pipe P. The source of compressed air is omitted from the drawings for the sake of clearness. The branch supply-pipe 12 to each damper-actuator has a three-way valve 1-1 or its equivalent, by which the pipe 12 may be opened to the header to receive pressure or closed to the header and opened to the atmosphere to relieve pressure. The two Ventilating-fines ot' any room can thus be opened or closed by simply turning the proper valve 14. ln the main pressure-supply pipe l) a similar valve 15 is provided, whereby pressure may be admitted to or removed from the header H and from all the damper-controllers simultaneously, thereby inducing or checking ventilation in all the rooms at once. Thus the ventilation in each room is controlled by an operator at a central station, either in the building or at a reasonable distance outside. A time-schedule for the ventilation ot' the dit'- l'erent rooms is provided for his guidance. Inspection of this schedule tells him what rooms are in use and what are unoccupied. By opening the proper valves 14 he opens the dampers and starts the circulation of ventilating-air through the rooms where ventilation is needed and by closing the valves stops the circula-tion through the rooms when they are unoccupied. This combination ot' header, pressure-pipes, and double-service or threevalve.

l l l way valves makes it possible to easily cutout rooms in any part ot' the building for an hour at a time, whereas -if vthe operator were required to go to each room to open or close the dampers it is probable that those rooms which were to be out of service for onlyva short time would not be cut out, and the eX- pense of maintaining ventilation in them while unoccupied would be a total loss.

lt occasionally happens that ventilation is required in only one or two rooms of a building containing a large number of apartments. It' the entire building is being ventilated it is inconvenient to cut out each of the other rooms individually, even by the simple threeare employed, each having a main fluid-pressure pipe P and P and three-way valves 1,5 and 15, by which tluid under pressure is admitted to the headers or by which the headers can be closed to pressureand opened to the atmosphere. The branch supply-pipes l2 are connected to both headers by three-way valves 14. Any pipe may be opened to either header and closed tothe other by turning its Thus with the pipes 12 all open tothe header H if the dampers are connected to their actuating devices, as shown byfull lines in Fig. 3, admitting' pressure to the header H opens all the dampers in the building simultaneously. If it is required to check ventilation in any room, open the header H to atmosphere by means ot' valve 15 and open the proper controlling-valve 14 to the header H. This leaves all the other dampers open to ventilato their respective rooms. Suppose now that it is desired to suddenly reverse the conditions by shutting olf all the rooms now being ventilated and to ventilato the room now shut eti'. The change can quickly and easily be made as follows: Open vvalve 15, thereby releasing pressure in header H and closing all` the open dampers simultaneously. Then admit pressure to header H by valve 15, thus opening the dampers of the room that was previously cutout. Only two valves have been moved. A very great number of combinations are possible with this arrangement, and any desired changes in ventilation can be made at the central station with the least possible manipulation.

In practice with school-buildings, the room being' ventilated only a few hours of the day, it will be better to have the dampers closed by the springs 13 or equivalent means and opened by fluid-pressure, thereby keeping diaphragms 9n from pressure most 0i' the time, prolonging their life and saving' fluid Jfrom possible leakage. ln hospitals, with rooms IIO ventilated most of the time, the reverse will be true, and the dampers should then be held open by springs 13 and closed by fluid-pressure. The Combination, Fig. 4., ad mits of doing this with minimum trouble, and it likewise admits 0l" other combinations that might be desired, as in the following ease: First, let H and H" both be under pressure and threeway valves 14 open to H. Then all dampers are opened (or closed). Now release pressure in H by opening 15 to atmosphere, and all dampers are elosed (or opened). Second, if desired, any damper may now be opened (or closed) by turning its valve 14 so as to place 12 in communication with H and later may be closed (or opened) by turning' 14 back again to H.

This system `for central] y controlling ventilation is easily installed and easily operated. The apparatus controlling the ventilation ot' an entire buildingI may be loeated in a small room to which none but authorized persons have access. A schedule of the rooms and the hours in which they are occupied may be prepared, and the circulation of air through each unoccupied room may be stopped as soon the room is out of service and started again when the room is needed. ln this way a large saving in heat is effected.

l/Vhile .l have throughout this speeilieation referred to the damper-actuating medium as il uid under pressure, I wish it to be understood that l employ the word pressure as a relative term and do not eonline myself to the use of pressure greater than atmosphere, lor it is evident that a mere reversal ot' preseures-as` for instance, su b 'jeeting the headers to partial vacuum instead ol to compressed air--might be made to serve the purpose of opening and closing the dampers in aeeordance with my invention.

'WV hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Fatent, is as :follows:

1. In a ven tilating system lor buildings having rooms eaeh provided with a 'fresh-air line and a foul-air flue, dampers in said lines, and a Huid-operated damper-actuator; a source of iluid under pressure; a header communicating with said source; a three-way valve lfor controlling Communication between the header and said source; conduits Connecting the header with each damper-actuator; together with a three-way valve in eaeh conduit; said three-Way valves being grouped at a central station, lior the purpose set forth.

2. ln a Ventilating system for buildings having rooms eaeh provided with a fresh-air l'lue and foul-air liue, dampers in said Ilues, and a lfluid-operated damper-actuator; a source ol. `fluid under pressure; a pair of headers eommunicating with said source; a three- Way valve for controlling Communication between each header and said source; pipes connecting the two headers; a conduit connecting one olf said pipes with each damper-aotuator, together with a three-way valve in each conduit.

ln testimony whereol l a'lix my signature in presence ot' two witnesses.

MORTE/IER E. COOLEY. l/Vitnesses:

lilamnsoN SoULu, ALV. l. Hum. 

